AM 62 fol.

Identification

Denmark, København, Den Arnamagnæanske Samling, AM 62 fol. 74 Ólafs saga Tryggvasonar en mesta; Iceland, s. XIV 2/2. (This version of Ólafs saga Tryggvasonar en mestaincorporates various sagas or excerps of sagas and þættir about Ólafur, also at the point, where texts from other redactions of the saga end (here: fol. 51va:24 ‘t ilengl andz af syrl andi’).)

Contents

Physical description

Object

Support description

Support

Parchment.

Extent

53. Fols 32v and 33r are blank. 327mm x 236mm.

Foliated in the upper right-hand corner of the recto-pages.

Collation

The manuscript consists of five extant gatherings:

• I: Fols 1-10:make the first extant quire consisting of five, apparently intact, bifolia.
• II: Fols 11-22:make a complete quire of six bifolia.
• III: Fols 23-37:comprise seven bifolia and a singleton, fol. 28, the sixth leaf of the gathering. Col. 32rb has only 13 lines, the rest of the page and fols 32v and 33r are left blank by the scribe. It can be presumed that between fols 32 and 33 there was another blank leaf which made a pair with fol. 28 and was at some stage severed from it.
• IV: Fols 38-47:make the present quire of five bifolia. There is a lacuna between fols 37 and 38, presumably only a single leaf.
• V: Fols 48-53:make three pairs of conjoint leaves.

The manuscript is not well-preserved; the beginning is defective and there are lacunae after fols 10, 37 and 47. The extant leaves have all suffered in some degree from wear and damp. Many passages are consequently hard to decipher, but there has been no loss of text as such except on fol. 37, where the vellum has crumbled away leaving a large hole in the outer column. The vellum used for the codex was not particularly well prepared. Many leaves have holes or gashes in them, some of them large, which were sewn together before the scribe began the work.

Layout

The manuscript is written in double columns each approx. 250mm x 84mm with 39 to 42 lines. Majuscules occur in varying colours; shades of yellow, red, green and blue. Traces of gold are detectable here and there, e.g. on fols 3r, 22rb, 29rb, though probably not from true gold-leaf.

Most chapter-titles or division marks are in red, but a few are in blue or blue-black with a greenish tint. In some places, instead of chapter-titles, we find examples of a fish sketched in, and occasionally a kind of spiralling line, e.g. on fol. 3. A single example of a small foliage motive occurs on fol. 2vb:21.

Hands

1. Apart from two short passages, the codex is written in a single hand. It is written in an Icelandic gothic bookhand and the orthography is unusually consistent. The scribe normally left spaces for decorated initials at the beginning of the first two lines of each chapter. It is the work from a practised and doubtless professional scribe, who can be counted among the very best of Icelandic penmen in the fourteenth century. The same writer was responsible for Stock. perg. 4to nr. 19, and at least a part of AM 122b fol. ( Reykjarfjarðarbók).

2. The second hand wrote fol. 11ra:17-40: ‘fyʀnefndr - ar’. The writing here is partly erased and in places almost illegible. It is clear, however, that the orthography and palaeography of this hand is markedly different from the first hand.

3. The third hand wrote fol. 11rb:11-40: ‘marg ir- ketils’. This passage is in a very handsome professional Icelandic gothic bookhand, clearly differentiated from those of hand 1 and hand 2 in appearance but with many orthographic features in common with the latter.

Decoration

• Fol. 15vb:has a major initial, a littera florissaof a Þof four lines with an extension down the left margin.
• Fol. 29rb:: The opening of Norna-Gests þáttrcontains a littera florissaof the letter Þwith dots and branches. The first three lines are set in, but the round bow of the Þextends up the upper margin, while the descendent runs down to the bottom of the margin. The bar is metamorphosing down the page from a dotted line to some sort of a branch with leaf-like outgrows and is ending in two spirals, and a leaf in the middle, in the lower margin. The top of the Þis ending in one single spiral.
• Fol. 31va:The opening of Helga þáttr Þórissonarcontains a major initial, a littera florissaof a Þ. 3 lines are set in, but the letter extends in the margin. The Þends with two spirals in the lower margin.
• Fol. 33va:The opening of Færeyinga sagacontains a major initial, a littera florissaof the letter Mwith branches and leaves. The four top lines are set in, but the Mextends in the upper margin. The right-hand line of the Mjust intrudes on of the first letters of the text, showing that the illumination was done after the scribe finished his work.
• Fol. 46rb:contains a major initial a Þwith branches and leaves, with an extention down the margin with one fleur-de-lis-like outgrow, and ends with a fleur-de-lis.
• Fol. 51va:: The opening of Halldórs þáttr Snorrasonarcontains a major initial, a littera florissaof the letter H. Four lines are set in, but the initial extends nine lines up the margin.

There are also some little drawings in the margins, e.g. fol. 10r:: A man with a fish on the hook of his fishing rod; fol. 22r:: A kissing couple; fol. 26r:: Three knights fighting a dragon who is eating one of them.

There are a few proper marginalia in the codex and some of them are illegible, some can only be read in part.

• Fol. 26r: ‘Gifur(?) þu kv(?)
  se mbezt se m
  heiter frut
  titum’. Note:the reading of the last word is uncertain.
• Fol. 27r:between the columns: ‘íon
  hef
  vr g
  ert o g(?)
  t il
  sett
  [...]br
  ef’( sixteenth century).
• Fol. 35v:below the text: ‘Ek einar’( fifteenth century).
• Fol. 36r:below the text: ‘Austr ædd’( c. 1500).
• Fol. 38r:below the text: ‘ave maria’( c. 1500).
• Fol. 46r:below the text: ‘olaf ur [...]
  ok [...]’( fifteenth century).
• The originally blank column 32rb has some nib-trials, including the alphabet, and there is more writing, pen trials, epistolary forms, apophthegms and the like, on the pages originally left blank, fols 32v and 33r.
• At the top of fol. 32v a hand from c. 1400or the first half of the fifteenth centurywrote: ‘þ eim godv mm onnvm sem þ etta br ef sía edr heyra sen nd ersira gvdvardr p restr
  þ orkeli þ ormrmodzsyní kvedív g vds oksína kv nnígt gerandi’.
• At the top of fol. 32v below the note just mentioned another hand has written: ‘Þ eim e reckí þat t ilmozt e rþan nen lifa s emwílía hallda síg m edheídr okgozs okharma f ras erskílía∴
  Hʀaf naur nhane mr þerna hauk urstelkur spoe ualur okkraka. langleítt haufut q uad gyllta sá kautt <j>myr ⟨kri⟩’. The stanza is from Skáld-Helga rímurbut the list of bird-names and the adage are not known from elsewhere.
• Parts of these entries are repeated in younger, unpractised hands in other spaces on fols 32v and 33r, as if it had been set them as a copybook model.
• Fol. 32v: ‘þoruardur skrifar illa’( c. 1500).
• A little further down the page: ‘helge h.’
• Fol. 33r: ‘halur er erlaus þiofs haus’( sixteenth century), now very faint and perhaps partly scraped off. Elsewhere on the page ‘halur’is written on its own.
• Fol. 33v:in a rather clumsily script with matching spelling, most probably from the sixteenth century: ‘vertv at bok þine
  bal fvsa so nvel þa skaltu
  fara t ilstehiaríns.’
• Fol. 33v:Another entry, doubtless made at or about the same time, and slightly more literate than the first, reads: ‘þ eim godv mm onnum vertu at bok þine ion narfa so nmeda nek
  er aburtv elleg erar fær þv flei nging’.

Binding

In his catalogue, AM 394 fol., Jón Sigurðssonsays that AM 62 fol. was bound in a pasteboard binding. This was probably the work of Mattias Larsen Blochdone at some time in the years 1771-73.

The manuscript was then re-bound three times, first, in the 1880'esand later, in 1934by Carl Lund. During conservation from 9 March 1981 to 10 July 1984, the manuscript was rebound by Birgitte Dallin a modern standard half-binding.

Accompanying material

There is an AM-slip pasted in front of the volume reading: ‘Þetta fragment true eg hafa
heyrt Skalholltz kirkiu til.
iafnvel þott þad eigi stande
i neinu afhendingar registre.
Eitt quer her ur feck eg ur ỏd
rum stad en nresten.
S iraOlafur 1699. kallade þad...’

History

Origin

The manuscript was written in Iceland. Kristian Kålund( KatalogI 41) dated the manuscript to the fifteenth century. Later, however, Stefán Karlsson( Ritun Reykjarfjarðarbókar130) dated it to the end of the fourteenth century. Ólafur Halldórsson ( The Saga of King Olaf Tryggvason18) means that the manuscript probably was not written later than c. 1370-80.

Provenance

According to Ólafur Halldórsson ( The Saga of King Olaf Tryggvason18), a note written by bishop Oddur Einarssonin 1612, now in AM 416 a 4to, fol. 6v, should concern AM 62 fol. If this is true, Oddur borrowed the manuscript from Magnús Hjaltason, and then he in turn lent it to Grimur Ormsson. When Oddur borrowed the manuscript from Magnús, it was in poor shape, but was ruined when it was returned to Oddur: ‘Magnus Hialltaßo nhefur
fyr erlỏngu ljed mi erOlafs
sỏgur lasnar Þær liede
eg Grijme Ormßyne hier
heima vm mveturen ntil jdku
nar þa h ann var hia mjer
ogfordiarfade h ann þær suo
ad eg h ef ecke getad þ eim apt ur
skilad þuij þær voru lasn ar
dur. ogfundust kueren
eptt erh onum aptur ogfram m
en nþad s em ept erer af þ eim
er hier til synes h ef eg
tid þ etta fyr erMagnuse
ogh efur h ann lofad þ adskyllde
kuitt þo h ann f einge þær all
drej apttur þuj þær være
lijtels verdar. þo eru þær
obitalad araf mi ertil’.

Two names are written on fol. 33v: They are those of Páll Fúsason (Vigfússon)( ‘bal fvsa so n’) and Jón Narfason( ‘ion narfa so n’), who were doubtless boys when they wrote the sentences. They can be identified as Páll Vigfússon, later lögmaðurand living at Hlíðarendiin Fljótshlíð( 1511-70) who was son of Vigfús Erlendsson lögmaður(d. 1521). Vigfús had a brother, Narfi, and Narfi’s son Jón must be the other youngster named on fol. 33v of the manuscript. Since the writer of the stanza from Skáld-Helga rímurand what follows it on fol. 32v was also the scribe of the document in AM Fasc. XIII 1, it is evident that the codex was in Eyjafjörðurregion at the time and probably at Mýrkain Hörgárdalurwhen the document was written in November 1451. Further support for the location of the manuscript in the region around Eyjafjörður may be found in the occurrence of the name Guðvardur on fol. 32v. Eyjafjarðarsýslaappears to be the only part of Icelandwhere this name was in use.

Acquisition

Árni Magnússongives the following information about the acquisition of the manuscript on a slip at the front of the volume: ‘Þetta fragment true eg hafa
heyrt Skalholltz kirkiu til.
iafnvel þott þad eigi stande
i neinu afhendingar registre.
Eitt quer her ur feck eg ur ỏd
rum stad en nresten.
S iraOlafur 1699. kallade þad...’The siraÓlafur reference is to a list of manuscripts which Jón Vídalín, bishop of Skálholt, sent to Árni in 1699.

The list, written by sira Ólafur Jónsson( 1672-1702), no longer exists but an extract from it in Árni Magnússon's hand is in AM 435 a 4to, fol. 154r-v: ‘Anno 1699. sende Mag. Jon Th.s.
mier Registur yfir nockrar kalf
skin ns skrædur, giỏrt af S iraOlafi Jons
syne, sem han nqvadst mier ut
vegad geta. Þar i bland voru
fragmenta af Olafs Sỏgu Tryggva
sonar in folio. (a) [Page]a] Þetta fragment eignadist eg sidan, er i
storu folio. Item feck eg ur ỏdrum
stad ä Islande nockud sem heyrde þ ar
til, oglagde eg þ adhier sammanvid’.

On fol. 57v in AM 435 a 4to, also in Árni's hand, is the following: ‘Fragmentum af Olafs Sỏgu Tryggvasonar, i storu folio: hefur til forna, öefad, heyrt Skalholltzkirkiu til. Eg feck þetta fragment i tveim stỏdum, ä Islande, nockud þar af Mag. Jone Widalin, ognockud ur ỏdrum stad.’

An inventory of property of Skálholt was made when Þórður Þorlákssonsucceeded as bishop in 1674. From it Árni Magnússon produced a list of the Icelandic books the cathedral of Skálholt owned at that time, now found on fols 153 and 156 of AM 435a 4to. No. 6 in the list is Olafs saga Helga, here Árni denies that the codex belonged to Skálholt: ‘Þetta mun vera einhvernveigin nmis
skrifad, þvi eingin Olafs Helga Saga
hefur fylgt Sklholltz kirkiu so mikid [Page]sem eg hefe skynia orded. Kyn ne
vera villt mlum, og eiga ad vera
Olafs Tryggvasonar Sỏgu frag
mentum, ka nskie þad sem er i
stőru folio, og kyn ne þ hafa fyll
ra vered, þő þad sie og ővïst.
Endelega kyn ne þeir sem afhend
ïnguna giỏrdu, hafa lited skagt til,
og tekid qvi pro qvo.’

Ólafur Haldórsson ( The Saga of King Olaf Tryggvason18) suggests that it is possible that the codex originally contained the sagas of both kings, Ólafs saga helgaand Ólafs saga Tryggvasonar, and that in 1674it still had at least parts of Ólafs saga helgain it. He asserts that this surmise finds support in the note written by Bishop Oddur Einarssonin 1612(see above).

Additional

Katalogiseret 19 Oktober 1999af EW-J.

During the restoration 9 March 1981 to 10 July 1984by Birgitte Dallthe leaves were restored and set on meeting guards and the manuscript was rebound in a modern standard half binding.

The manuscript was photographed twice, the first time in 1968and for the second time 6 August 1992. The second set of photographs was presumably made for the facsimily-edition.

Supplementary photographs of fols 29-32r and 37, 38r.

In August 1992photographs in uv-light were taken of fols 1r, 5v, 6r, 9r, 10v, 11r-v, 13r, 20v, 21r-v, 23r, 24v, 25r, 26r, 30r, 33v, 34r, 37v, 38r, 43r, 51v, and 53v.

1. plateplade 133 6 August 1992.
2. plateplade 21 s.d. (Supplementary photographs of fols 29-32r, 37, 38r.)
3. b/w printsAM 62 fol. 6. August 1992
4. b/w printsAM 62 fol. s.d. (supplementary photographs of fols 29-32r and 37, 38r.)
5. b/w printsAM 62 fol August 1992(Supplementary photogrpahs in uv-light of fols 1r, 5v, 6r, 9r, 10v, 11r-v, 13r, 20v, 21r-v, 23r, 24v, 25r, 26r, 30r, 33v, 34r, 37v, 38r, 43r, 51v, and 53v.)
6. diapositiveAM 29 fol. s.d. (fol. 29r)

1. Kålund, KatalogI 41-42
2. Ólafur Halldórsson, The saga of King Olaf Tryggvason: AM 62 fol.9-26 (Facsimile-edition)
3. Ólafur Halldórsson, Úr sögu skinnbóka(With facsimile of fol. 32ra:14-35)
4. Stefán Karlsson, Ritun Reykjarfjarðarbókar